Blur The Magic Whip review: Blur sound as vital and innovative as they ever did

The Magic Whip at once sounds completely Blur, but completely current.

As the reunion conveyor belt whirrs on, bringing back everyone from Pulp to 5ive in a series of financially lucrative gigs that make wildly varying degrees of sense in 2015, the reconciliation game has become an increasingly cynical one to be in. Recently, Noel Gallagher was quoted as saying that an Oasis reunion would only ever occur (if, not when) "for the money", while the recent restarting of The Libertines' engine was also, by Pete Doherty's own admission, at least initially financially-based. Few, it seems, are even trying to lie that it's about anything much to do with art.

No doubt, following the previous six years of sporadic Blur reunions (Hyde Park shows in 2009 and 2012, a Glastonbury headline slot and a spattering of European shows among them), Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree haven't exactly been strapped for cash, but you always got the feeling that Blur were in it for the proper reasons â€“ even if said reasons were largely to right the wrongs of an inter-band relationship breakdown several years before (Coxon left the band in 2002 before the release of Think Tank). Now, is when that point is solidified.

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Coxon has stated that the band couldn't have continued playing live without any new material, that "it was getting tedious and some of the fans were getting peeved about it", but there's where the story could have ended. However, with no contractual obligations to fill and a world entirely unaware of their movements, Blur headed down to a Hong Kong studio for six days in 2013. Later, after Albarn had stated that the session work would likely never be released, Coxon and producer Stephen Street picked them up and began to whittle them into what would become The Magic Whip.

It's an album that was announced out of the blue, that no-one expected and that exists because it should - free of cash cow cynicism as proof that Blur still make total sense in 2015.

The Magic Whip at once sounds completely Blur, but completely current. Like the logical successor to 13 â€“ the last album the band made as a four-piece â€“ but with added sonic reference points to Albarn's own solo work, it veers between melancholic introversions, bawdy bangers and experimental layering with aplomb. Crucially, it never sounds like it's trying to recreate the same sonic ticks they had two decades ago, instead happily carving out a set of new ones.

'Lonesome Street' opens the record with its most recognisable characteristics â€“ all jaunty bounce and lyrics about catching the 514 bus, it riffs on the cheeky chappy tropes of old but approaches them with fun rather than force. 'New World Towers', meanwhile, flips the mood immediately, taking dusky, liltingly sparse backing and allowing Albarn's inimitable vocal to take the fore. 'Go Out' is a wonky, wonderful clatter of wired energy, while 'Ice Cream Man' is a seemingly throwaway character study played out over nuanced layers of electronic blips and acoustics. So far, so different.

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'Thought I Was A Spaceman' takes sonic influence from its oriental surroundings and begins slowly before kicking into swirls of tremolo-heavy guitars, Coxon's input stamping itself firmly, while 'I Broadcast' is the 'Popscene'-esque banger that'll kick their forthcoming Hyde Park return up another notch and 'My Terracotta Heart' with its 'Everyday Robots' introversions and heartbreaking dissection of Albarn and Coxon's relationship will leave more than a few eyed damp.

The album's closing third treads some of the band's newest ground â€“ from the military stamp of 'There Are Too Many Of Us', to the reggae lilt of 'Ghost Ship' to the bass-led atmospherics of 'Pyong Yang' â€“ but really The Magic Whip is entirely characterised by an overflowing of ideas. Twelve years after their last record, 16 after the last one as a quartet, Blur sound as vital and innovative as they ever did. Bands reunited, take note: this is how you do it.

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